What are good questions to ask when finding a reception site!?

My first question was always, 'how much per person'?
What is the minimum guest count? One thing that was important to me was how many chafing dishes are included in the cocktail hour price. Do the waiters take drink orders or do the guests have to go to the bar.
I am sure there are tons of stuff that are personally important to you and your FH, those are the questions you should be asking. Make sure you like the BM that will be working your reception the day of.

Before you sign any contract, ask about their policy on adding upgrades or making changes to a signed contract.

I can offer you a good tip: if you are thinking of adding upgrades (seafood, venetian hour, whatever), wait until further along in the planning process. Your hall will gladly accept more money at any point, so you can always add upgrades to your contract.

However, if you add an upgrade upon contract signing, and down the road in your planning process, you wish you didn't (monetary reasons, wish you had gotten something else instead, whatever reason), you may not be able to remove the upgrade because the contract is already signed!

Our hall will let us add to our contract up until two weeks before our event.

You should ask:

how much the vendors and children cost to feed

what liquor is included- if they say top shelf get clarification on what the hall considers top shelf

also- is there an upcharge for signature drinks, or any other alcohol they don't ordinarily carry but you want to serve.

What times are you allowed on the premises for pictures.

Is there a charge for valet, coat check and doormen.

If you are holding your ceremony there: ask about the fee, what is included and if they have a runner (and what color(s) the running comes in).

Hope this helps!

-Do you do more than one event at a time?
-How much do children/vendors cost to eat?
-Is open bar included? Top shelf?
-What is your dessert, just cake or full spread? Is full spread/cake included or extra?

Negotaite price per person. 'If I can lock in 150 people could you go down 15 dollars a head?' ect ect. We locked in 185 and got an unbelieable price with a Martini Fountain, cocktail welcome and Chocolate Fountain (yup!) all included.

i think something to ask/do before singing is have a food tasting! i signed and my venue said we would have one when the wedding got closer so i said ok...in the end they wouldnt give us one....they said they dont do that.

i also actually disagree with the comment about adding upgrades later on in the planning process...
we got an amazing deal on our upgrades to the point that our BM even said at our final meeting wow i cant believe you got such a great price.
we went to add another thing in the end and she basically was willing to drop like $1 pp...meanwhile we got her half price on almost everything else we added before we signed.
the last thing we did when she gave us the final price with upgrades was say...ok ill sign now if you throw in the chaircovers...and she did

i guess its all a matter of how you like to negotiate. but imo, they want you to sign the contract so they will do more in the beginning...once they have your money and signed contract they dont need to give as great of a discount bc regardless you are having your wedding at their location.
but thats jmo, i could be the only one that had that experience with negotiations....